The Voice Of The Heart
by chocorouge
Summary: Squall/Rinoa. Squall leaves for a deadly mission, causing the SeeD members to become stranded. Everyone thinks that they were lost at battle, including a broken-hearted Rinoa. When he finally returns, who does he find wrapped around Rinoa’s arms? Seifer.
1. Rejection

**The Voice Of The Heart**

By: chocorouge

Pairing: Squall/Rinoa & some Seifer/Rinoa

Rated: R

Summary: Squall leaves for a deadly mission that causes the Seed members to become stranded and lost. Everyone thinks that they were lost at battle, including a broken hearted Rinoa. When he finally returns, who does he find wrapped around Rinoa's arms? Seifer.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the FFVIII characters!

* * *

Chapter 1: Rejection

"Squall, please be careful."

Rinoa sighed as she watched him quickly gather his belongings into a small duffle bag and slid his gunblade into its sheath at his belt.

"Rinoa, you know I will."

Squall hated when people told him to be careful. He never really knew what to say in response to that statement or anything else really for that matter. Even when he was talking to Rinoa, who was the closest person he had ever been with before, it was hard because everything he said usually came out wrong. He just wasn't good with communicating with others. He rarely spoke a sentence that contained more than a few words. Sometimes he wondered why he was even born a human. Why wasn't he an inanimate object or something? Something – anything – that didn't require much speaking!

But the main reason was because it had been just plain awkward between the two of them. The pair had been alone in his room after attending a class together the day before.

/FLASHBACK

"_Squall..." Rinoa trailed off from what she was saying as she noticed how close they were sitting together on his bed. _

_She could almost feel his skin touching hers. How they had gotten so close in proximation, she didn't know. _

_Squall looked up from one of his books that he had held in his hand and gave Rinoa a questioning glance. His eyebrows knitted together. He hadn't noticed that they were so close together on the bed_

"_Yeah, whats wrong?"_

_Rinoa felt her heart jump for a second. His face was so close to hers. She looked at his lips that were slightly open. They looked so soft and kissable... If only she had the guts to kiss those lips._

"_Umm...nothing." Rinoa looked down and felt her face turn red. _

"_Okay," Squall said casually and went back to his book. _

_Rinoa's heart continued race. She was so sick of having to hide her infatuation for him and being so nervous around him. She needed to tell him how she felt about him or else it would probably consume her and drive her mad. She had already hid these feelings for him for far too long now. It was either now or never! _

"_I...actually, I do have something to tell you."_

_Her heart continued to pound so loud that that was all she could hear._

_Squall looked up again from his book. "Is something bothering you?" _

_Rinoa exhaled loudly and tried to muster all the courage she had to tell him. "Squall, I've been hiding this from you for a long time and I just need to let it out or else I'm going to go insane."_

_He nodded for her to continue._

"_Well, it's just that... I like you, Squall. I like you more than as a friend."_

_Squall was stunned and opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. He didn't know what to say to her. He always had a soft side for Rinoa and deep down within him, he knew he liked her back. But if he admitted he liked her too, it would probably lead them towards being a relationship with one another. He didn't know if he could handle it at the moment, or ever. He knew he was being a coward but he was scared of such a commitment._

"_I don't think we should be in a relationship," he said bluntly after a long pause. "We should just stay friends."_

_Pain from his words jabbed at her heart. Rinoa knew it from the start. She knew she shouldn't have told him and she mentally slapped herself for her embarrassing mistake. Deep down inside she knew that Squall didn't like her yet why had she confessed? _

"_Haha, it's alright." A fake giggle erupted from her throat but the hurt look on her face was still evident. "Of course. Just friends! Silly me." _

"_I'm really sorry."_

_Squall didn't know how to console her. It had been his response that had been the cause of her pain so he really didn't have the right to console her anyways._

/END FLASHBACK

He quickly led the way out of his single room with Rinoa following him and locked the door behind them. They walked down the stairs towards the main hall in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Squall wasn't even sure if she was comfortable to be with him again since the incident from the day before. She had looked so upset that he wished he had just told her the truth, that he really did like her too.

"Squall, you are late! We have all been waiting for you!"

The sudden voice interrupted both their thoughts as they faced a red-faced Quitis who was tapping her foot impatiently and her arms crossed over her chest with the whole crew behind her. They glanced at the members behind her shoulder who also sported similar annoyed expressions on their face.

"You were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago, Squall," Quitis continued with a frown on her face. "Hurry up and get your things onto the bus!"

Squall obliged and followed his commander towards the bus with his duffle bag on hand. He glanced behind him where Rinoa stood. He wasn't sure how he should say goodbye to her. Everyone was waiting impatiently for him and he didn't really know what to say to Rinoa at the moment.

"Later, Rinoa," he said casually.

"Err...yeah, bye," she replied absentmindedly.

Squall quickly boarded the bus along with the rest of the crew. Quitis boarded last and the bus drove out of the garden gates and into the distance.

Rinoa sighed loudly as the bus disappeared. Their goodbye had been awkward. She hated how long pauses and awkwardness hung above all their conversations now. She wished she hadn't confessed. If she had known rejection was this painful...

"Rinoa!" a high pitched voice yelled from behind her.

She quickly spun around to see Selphie running down the main stairs towards her with a cheerful smile plastered on her face.

"Selphie!" Rinoa exclaimed and her unhappiness temporarily was forgotten. She smiled as her best friend came up to her side.

"Rinoa! Why are you standing all alone in the main hall? Don't you have class?"

"I was just sending Squall off. He's gone on another mission with some of the other SeeD members and he'll be back after tomorrow," Rinoa explained.

She continued on with her story and told her friend how awkward things had been with between her and Squall and how he had rejected her the day before.

"No way!" Selphie exclaimed in response, "but I see how he is when he's with you!"

"What do you mean?" Rinoa's eyebrows furrowed together.

"Well, first of all, I can totally see that he cares for you, more than a normal friend. And second, he always talks about you and steals glances at you whenever you aren't looking." Selphie explained and put her right hand to her chin as she thought deeply for more reasons.

Rinoa laughed at her friends' reasons. "Even so, that doesn't mean that he likes me. I directly confessed to him and he outrightedly rejected me. So I'm pretty sure that means that he doesn't like me."

"I think he's just putting up a front," Selphie said, still thinking. "He's probably scared of starting a relationship with you because you are such a great girl and he's afraid to mess up!"

Rinoa laughed again. She loved hanging out with Selphie and talking to her. She always able to lift her spirits whenever she was down.

"Thanks for listening, Selphie. You made me feel a lot better."

"No prob, Rinoa! But I really think something good will happen to you guys even though he rejected you. It's just a hunch," Sephie winked and giggled.

Rinoa sighed and mentally thanked Selphie again for lifting her spirits. She didn't want to think about Squall anymore. In the mean time, she would just hit the books and study to take the pain off her mind. Hopefully she could get over him as soon as possible before he got back so that things wouldn't be so awkward between them.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading :) For those who read my other stories, just wanted to let you know that I won't be updating them anymore. I've lost interest in anime. ' I'll get another chapter of this story up and running soon.


	2. A Not So New Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters!

A/N: Okay, so for those who don't like Seifer/Rinoa at all, please don't read this story. I'm thinking of putting them together for a bit because I like those two as a pair so there's going to be some lovin' between them haha! But the story will obviously be mostly Squall/Rinoa later on.

Chapter 2: A Not So New Beginning

_"Thanks for listening, Selphie. You made me feel a lot better."_

_"No prob, Rinoa! But I really think something good will happen to you guys even though he rejected you. It's just a hunch," Sephie winked and giggled._

_Rinoa sighed and mentally thanked Selphie again for lifting her spirits. She didn't want to think about Squall anymore. In the mean time, she would just hit the books and study to take the pain off her mind. Hopefully she could get over him as soon as possible before he got back so that things wouldn't be so awkward between them._

* * *

Squall exhaled harshly when he sat down at his seat on the bus as it drove away from Balamb Garden. He knew he had messed up big time again and there was nothing he could do to take back his response to Rinoa.

_God... Rinoa..._

He still remembered her pain-stricken face when he had rejected her. It was now an image that was etched permanently into his brain. Just thinking about it, he wished every time that he could go back just an hour using a time machine and change what he had done.

He felt a hard tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, whatcha thinkin' about, Squall?"

Turning his head around, Squall saw a curious look etched on Zell's baby face in the seat behind him. Without letting him answer, Zell continued. "You've been looking so blue since you came onto the bus. Don't tell me Quitis' shouting got you all sad!"

Zell, seeing that Squall didn't reply, continued his babbling. "You're kidding! Quitis isn't even scary! It's just her exterior that's kinda cold. Really, she's not scary at all – "

"Zell..." Squall cut him off, trying to hint to his friend that he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

" – Anyways, all you need to do is say sorry to her. I'm pretty sure Quitis will forgive you. Just try not to be late next time – "

"Zell, can you just shut up?" Squall cut off his sentence with a low growl.

That shut him up fast. Squall didn't care at the moment of Zell's hurt look on his face but sometimes he really just could not take Zell's constant babbling. Right now he just wanted peace and quiet to think things through. Continuing his thoughts as the bus bumped up and down along the road, he tried to think of what to do with his situation with Rinoa.

The bus stopped after a few hours. Quitis got up at the front of the bus as it pulled into a small patch of land in front of a small opening that looked like a cave.

"Okay SeeDs. Get into your squads everyone once you file out of the bus! This mission is one of the most important and may be your last if you are not careful!"

* * *

Rinoa still couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened between her and Squall even though she had cracked open one of her textbooks in the library. She felt her cheeks burning red every time she thought of the embarrassing confession she had made. How stupid she was to think that anything would ever happen between them! Of course Squall didn't like her like that. They were two entirely different people, with different personalities. It was like they were from two different worlds that were never meant to collide with one another. Like she was from Venus and he was from Mars.

She slammed her textbook a little too loudly on the library table. She quickly apologized to all the other students who gave her dirty looks when they looked up to see what the loud noise was. She hated drawing negative attention to herself. It was so embarrassing.

In a hurry to get out of the library and out of sight from the other students' dirty looks, she took her books and ran out into the hall. She decided that she would drop her books back to her room first and then go find Selphie. She quickly turned the corner that lead to the students' dorms but collided with a very hard object.

_Oomph! _

"Ouch," she yelped and felt her stomach which ached from the impact.

"Well, well. Look what we have here."

That voice. It was so very familiar.

Rinoa looked up to see who she had bumped into and gulped when she saw Seifer towering over her with a smirk on his face.

"Seifer," she muttered quietly to herself.

She could feel butterflies squirming around in her stomach. She had never actually had a real conversation with him before. Was she supposed to talk to him? He was, after all, Squall's arch nemesis. Sure, Squall and Seifer always had violent run-ins and short arguments in the hallways and around the Garden but she had always been in the sidelines, watching. She was never really part of the fights nor in the actual conversations. She didn't need to be.

"Uh, I'm really sorry," she said quickly and tried to walk past him.

She just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. Something was shouting inside her head that he was dangerous and that she needed to run. She knew he wasn't actually dangerous but she knew, deep inside, that she just wasn't supposed to associate with him.

"Uh uh uh," he laughed, wagging his index finger from side to side, and slid over to block her way. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you," Rinoa replied with annoyance in her voice.

Rinoa heard Seifer chuckled as he continued to watch her. She tried to get past him again but he still blocked her every move. Why was he being so difficult!

"What do you want, Seifer," she demanded and looked at him straight in the eye. She could hear her voice was getting louder now.

He snickered. "Nothing, just wondering why your lover boy isn't with you. You're always on his arm whenever I see that bastard."

Rinoa furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. Lover boy? She felt her insides start boiling with anger. If he was referring to Squall as her "lover boy", she so wanted to so kick his butt! Squall was definitely not her lover and she seriously didn't need someone to remind her of the damn guy that just rejected her.

She felt her face go red and screamed loudly, "SQUALL ISN'T MY LOVER BOY AND HE NEVER WILL BE!!"

Seeing Seifer's confused, blank face, she angrily shoved him aside. "NOW MOVE IT, YOU ASSHOLE!"

Rinoa stormed off. The blonde continued to stand where he had been shoved aside, confused at what had just happened. "What the hell was that about?"

* * *

Back in her room, Rinoa tried to calm down her nerves. She had just been in the process of trying to forget about being rejected and just forget about Squall overall until he came back. But having bumped into Seifer and hearing what he had said to her, it was a just big fat reminder of how Squall would never, ever be her lover.

She could feel the stinging in her eyes as the tears threatened to spill out. Sitting down on her comfy down blanket, she took one of the nearest plush toys that she had on her bed. Hugging it tight, she buried her face in it and tried to find comfort. She could feel a tear drop falling down her cheek and sighed.

Rinoa didn't want to think about Squall but the thoughts of the past between them all kept coming back to her. She didn't want to cry but the tears now started raining down her face without stopping. She wiped away the tears on her face and the drops that were now falling down onto her chest.

As she wiped, her fingers brushed against the necklace that hung around her neck. Before he had rejected her, back when she had celebrated her first birthday here at the garden with the rest of the gang, Squall had given it to her as a gift for her birthday. Looking down at it angrily, she pulled at the necklace. The necklace chain broke with a soft _cling_ and she roughly threw the necklace across the room. It hit the wall with a _clang_ and slid sadly to the floor. She eyed it angrily but decided that she didn't want to look at it anymore. She didn't want anything to remind her of Squall.

_This is it. I will just forget about Squall and my feelings for him. I need to start fresh. Have a new beginning for myself._

Rinoa was determined but she knew it was going to be a difficult period coming up. She had mainly hung out with Squall and the gang most of the time during her time at Balamb Garden after she had moved here about two years ago. If she was going to get over Squall, she was going to need to find more friends to hang out with so that she could spend less time with him. After all, they probably wouldn't feel very comfortable around each other now that she had confessed that she liked him. It was probably best to avoid each other until the awkwardness between them subsided.

Just then, the P.A. system buzzed on.

"_Attention please, all students of Balamb Garden. This is an important and unfortunate announcement that will be made."_

There was a pause. Rinoa eyebrows furrowed and she got off the bed and went to the speaker in her room to turn up the volume to listen to what they would announce. This was unusual. The Garden rarely addressed messages like this.

_"As all students know, two squads of important SeeD members were sent to complete an important mission this morning. However, it is quite unfortunate for the Garden to announce that there has been an accident and we have lost contact with the two squads. We do not know their whereabouts at this time but we will be sending out a search party to look for them. Please remain calm. We will be updating you with more information when we find out more about the situation. Thank you."_

The system went dead. Rinoa's mouthed went dry. Her head started spinning and she could feel her heart racing.

_What did this mean? Squall had gone on that mission!_

Did it mean that he was hurt? Dead? Where was the rest of the squad?

She had never heard of this ever happening before. Never was there a mission that had gone wrong and the SeeD members never returning. Could this be the first one? Were there any casualties?

"Oh my god...oh my god," she couldn't stop saying over and over again as the thought of Squall not alive anymore rushed through her mind.

Even if Squall had rejected her, she knew still really cared about him. Even if she had thought bad things about him, she didn't wish that he died! If he had died on this mission, she had no idea what she was going to do. Her mind was going in all directions now. Everything was starting to look blurry.

She went to her phone that was on her table and tried to quickly dial Selphie's number. But her shaky fingers were just all over the place. She couldn't get them to dial the right numbers. After trying the fifth time to get Selphie's dorm number right, there was a knock on her door. Shaking, she put down the phone and slowly made her way to the door to answer it.

"Rinoa?" Selphie said with concern when the other girl opened her door. "Did you hear the announcement? Are you okay?"

Rinoa nodded slightly but she and her best friend knew she was just lying to herself.

"Oh, Rinoa, he'll be okay," Selphie tried to comfort her, "I'm sure everything will be okay. They're going to find him and the rest of the squads."

"But what if...he's really dead?" she tried to choke out as best as she could.

Selphie sighed, "Rinoa, you just have to trust me with this. He'll be okay."

Rinoa tried to nod but she didn't feel any better even with Selphie's reassurance and her loving embrace. "It'll be okay, it'll be okay..." Selphie soothed, patting her on the back as Rinoa buried her head into her friends' shoulder and started crying.


	3. Lost & Found

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own these characters! :(

Chapter 3: Lost & Found

_She went to her phone that was on her table and tried to quickly dial Selphie's number. But her shaky fingers were just all over the place. She couldn't get them to dial the right numbers. After trying the fifth time to get Selphie's dorm number right, there was a knock on her door. Shaking, she put down the phone and slowly made her way to the door to answer it._

"_Rinoa?" Selphie said with concern when the other girl opened her door. "Did you hear the announcement? Are you okay?"_

_Rinoa nodded slightly but she and her best friend knew she was just lying to herself. _

* * *

Squall winced at the searing pain that engulfed his whole body as he tried to get up from his position on the bumpy ground. He couldn't really see that well as the place was really dark but there was a slight ray of light that was shining in from far away.

_Where am I?_

Trying again, he slowly got up and brushed off the dust on his body. He could make out things better now as his eyes slowly got used to the dark. He thought he had actually been lying on the cold hard floor. But it turns out he hadn't been lying on the floor. Instead there were many large boulders and smaller rocks that were lying around him. He could tell that he was in the cave that the two squads had entered before he must have passed out. Part of the cave must have collapsed on them. But where were the rest of the two squads? He couldn't remember what had happened before he had been knocked out.

"Ugnnn..." a voice moaned softly from somewhere behind him.

Turning abruptly to see what had made that noise, he automatically put his hand on the handle of his gunblade, ready to strike if the thing that made the sound attacked him. "Who's there?" he demanded loudly. His booming voice echoed throughout the cave.

"Squall?"

He looked down, and saw part of Zell's body jammed underneath a large boulder. His hand that was holding his gunblade loosened and relaxed. He could see dried blood on his friend's forehead as well as on his arms. Chunks of Zell's blonde hair had also become a dirty dark brown due to the dirt fallen onto his head.

"Zell! Are you okay?" Squall approached him with worry.

"It hurts so much."

At this close distance, he could see Zell's SeeD uniform had become entirely drenched in dried dark red blood. Seeing his friend in great pain, he bent down right away and tried to lift up the heavy boulder that was stuck on top of him with all his strength he could muster. Luckily, the boulder wasn't too heavy so he pried it easily off Zell's lower body.

"Squall, you're forehead is bleeding," Zell said faintly and tried to lift his right arm up to point towards the area that was hurt.

"Don't worry about me, Zell." Squall shook his head and brushed the dust off the blonde's uniform. "Let's just worry about you right now."

Using his strength again, he took Zell's arms and wrapped them around his shoulders to help him get off the ground. Zell moaned in pain as he got up with Squall's support. Squall quickly pulled up the bottom of his friends' uniform pants to check to see if there were any broken bones. Luckily, even though the boulder had fallen down onto his body, he didn't seem to be seriously injured. There were just large wounds that were causing him to lose a lot of blood.

"Where are the other people?" he asked quietly.

"I have no idea," Squall answered, his brows furrowed. "Zell, sit back here. I'm going to bandage you up."

The blonde nodded and sat down with his back against the side of the cave with the help of Squall. Squall ripped off part of his shirt so that he could use it to bandage up his friends' wound. He heard Zell sigh when he was done.

"Thanks, Squall," he whispered again.

Squall nodded in return. "No problem."

He squinted and tried to look around again. There were rocks everywhere. Were all the other people trapped under the large boulders too? He couldn't see clearly.

"I'll be right back, Zell," he said. Looking down to see if his friend was okay, he found that the blonde had already closed his eyes and his breathing had calmed down.

He started moving carefully further into the cave. He looked especially at the rocks beneath him to see if there was anybody trapped like Zell was. "Is anybody here?" he yelled out.

Squall's voice echoed throughout the cave again. No response. He tried to go further back into the cave but the further he went down, there was no more light shining in from outside. He decided that he couldn't go any further without being blinded.

Sighing with frustration, he returned back to Zell. He was still asleep. He was basically alone here with the rocks, aside from Zell. He needed to think of a way out of here or else both of them would die of starvation.

But how had they passed out in the first place? How long had he been passed out for anyways? How had the rocks fallen on them? The cave hadn't looked like it had caved in. Where were the rest of the SeeD squads? If he had remembered correctly, all the SeeD members, including himself, had entered the cave all at the same time.

He sat down beside Zell, his back hitting the cool cave wall behind him, and tried to think of an explanation. He needed answers.

Rinoa...

He wished she was here with him. She would know what to do. He sighed and closed his eyes. He didn't want to admit it but he missed her so much.

* * *

Rinoa had waited the whole day for another announcement to be made by the Garden. But still, no news was made. She had been on edge through all her classes, not on what her teachers were saying, but the short announcements that were always made throughout the day. Every time the P.A. system started buzzing, she would almost jump out of her seat and prayed that there was good news to be announced.

"Miss Heartily."

Her mind was off at another place. She was holding Squall's hand. In this world, he always smiled at her with loving eyes, and they both were madly in love with each other.

A cough disassembled her dream world. Snapped out of her reverie, she looked up her desk to find her Junctions professor standing in front of her with his arms crossed his chest and a very crossed look on his face.

"Miss Heartily, I've always looked upon you as a very bright student and even considered you as one of my very best," he paused. "But sleeping and dreaming in class is absolutely formidable and you will be punished for that."

The other students in the class snickered.

"Off you go to the detention hall." He angrily pointed towards the door to signal that she leaved right away. "Now."

Rinoa's face had turned red with embarrassment. She quickly took her books off the desk and ran out the door, closing it a little bit too loudly than she intended to behind her. Again, she had embarrassed herself because she had been thinking of Squall.

She slowly walked shamefully towards the detention hall. She had always been a good student and never had to have the chance to go to the detention hall. The place was associated with the more rowdy and defying students of the Garden as they often got sent there if they didn't behave in class.

When she got there, the door was open. She could hear a low murmuring coming from the direction of the room. Entering the room, she saw at least twenty rows of desks all lined side by side with one another, all filled by students talking quietly amongst themselves, and a very bored looking female teacher sitting up front at the desk. She didn't know so many students could fit at a detention hall at one time!

"Your name?" the teacher said in an annoyed voice.

"Rinoa," she replied quietly, "Rinoa Heartily."

"Miss Heartily, rewrite these lines 1000 times on these pieces of lined paper. Once you're done, give it back to me. Now go find a seat," the women barked.

Rinoa jumped at the teacher's harsh tone. She quickly scanned the room and tried to find an empty seat. Miraculously, all the seats were taken. Well, except for one in the very, very far back right corner. She smiled that there was one last one for her and that she didn't need to stand, which she originally thought she might have to. As she sat down at the little corner seat, she didn't notice the blonde that was in the seat next to hers.

"What a nice surprise."

Upon hearing that familiar silky voice again, she frowned and turned her head abruptly to find Seifer's signature smirk on his face. His white pearly teeth flashed back at her.

"You again!" Rinoa huffed with anger.

This day was definitely going to get interesting. Why was she always bumping into him these days!

"Yes, me again," Seifer mockingly replied.

"What are you doing here!" she demanded, ignoring his tone.

"What does it look like," he replied casual, "I'm in detention just like you are. One of my favourite parts of the day actually. The real question should be, what are _you_ doing here?"

Rinoa frowned again and ignored his question, deciding to look through the papers that the women had given her a few minutes ago. She sighed as she looked at what she had to rewrite 1000 times over and over again.

_I am a good student and good students do not daydream in class._

Oh boy, she would most definitely be missing most of her classes for the rest of the day because of these lines she had to write!

"What do you have to write?" Seifer asked as he shuffled his chair and leaned over to peer at what had been written on her piece of paper.

Seeing her line, he chuckled. "Shorter than mine."

He brought his lined pieces of paper over and she glanced at his statement he had to repeat over and over again.

_I may not be a good student but I will still not skip class and go into the off bounds area of the training centre. _

Rinoa laughed at his required line. She and Squall had used to skip some classes to go to the training centre last year before her SeeD field tests. Unfortunately for her, even though she had practiced so much with Squall, she still hadn't passed the field test to become a SeeD member. Sighing again, she tried to push back the thoughts of Squall from her head. It was no use thinking about him at the moment.

"You skipped class just to go to the training center?" she asked as she focused back on the blonde before her. "Why didn't you just go some other time, like at night? So many teachers patrol during classes."

"I heard that there was going to be a pretty rare monster appearing today during classes so I had to see what it was myself. Ends up, this teacher had set it up as a trap to lure students in, so that's why there're so many people here today," Seifer explained. "This place isn't this packed usually!"

He flashed another grin and winked, "I would know."

Rinoa smiled and glanced at his pieces of paper that he held out in front of her. He seemed to have already completed more than half of his 1000 lines. Contrary to what she thought of him, his handwriting was very neat. The pages were tidy and looked like a girl had written them. She had expected with his persona that he would have messy writing. She was definitely surprised.

"You're writing is so neat," Rinoa complimented him.

"It's from all the practice I get when I come here," he said with a grin and went back to his seat.

There was silence between the two as Rinoa started writing her lines and Seifer continued on with his own. After around half an hour, Seifer yelled, "Yessss, baby, I'm done!"

Rinoa looked down again at her own pieces of paper and then at Seifer's neat finished ones. She noticed that her writing had become considerably sloppier from start to finish. She had only finished around 76 of lines. How had Seifer finished in such a short time and still able to keep his neatness consistent! If she were to finish this, she felt that it would probably take her the next 2 or 3 days nonstop!

"You know, I can help you if you want," he whispered so that she could only hear. It was as if he could read her mind.

Looking over to Seifer, she saw his hand outreached. She sent him a worried look. "What if they find out?"

"Nah, they won't," he replied with his usual smirk. "Trust me."

She hesitated for a moment but in the end, happily handed him over some of her pieces of paper. "Thanks," she smiled.

Suddenly she felt a guilty feeling wash over her being. This whole thing between her and Seifer... was this relationship even supposed to exist? Was this allowed? They were starting to act somewhat like friends. If Seifer was Squall's arch-nemesis, she wasn't supposed to even associate with him. But at the same time, this relationship didn't seem to cause any harm. Squall wasn't here and she didn't even know if he was going to come back alive. Plus, Seifer seemed like a nice, normal guy, and didn't seem to be of any harm. Why he hated Squall and vice versa, she had no idea.

She glanced again at the blonde sitting next to her, helping her finish off her lines, and smiled to herself. Being with him, even if they were just in the corner of the busy detention hall, she felt like the world stopped and it was just the two of them. Just being with him somehow took her mind off Squall and she had a strange feeling that made her feel safe. Even if this friendship was going to jeopardize her relationship with Squall, she felt needed to do this for herself. Just this once, she would be selfish and listen to the voice of her heart.


End file.
